I could be hit by a bus with zebra stripes at any moment

After a pretty decent experience at the doctor's office yesterday I actually felt better. For about 6 hours. Then I went on to #2 on my list of "diseases I have". As I've said before, if I rule out one thing, I go on to the next. So when my Doctor said

"If you're worried about having a heart attack or a stroke, stop. That is absolutely not going to happen"

Of course in my mind that is translated to:

"If you're worried about having a heart attack or a stroke, stop. That is absolutely not going to happen. However, you may or may not drop dead instantly if at least 100 other things that you may (or may not) have."


Actually, it seems that everything that comes out of a medical professionals mouth sounds to me like:

"...yap yap yap...however, you could die..NOW! oooooor NOW!"

That's the problem. The uncertainty of it all. I once saw a post that put it very much in perspective (not that it cured me). It said something like 'life is a dangerous thing'. In other words, just the fact that you are alive means you could die at any moment. There's always the proverbial bus waiting to hit you.

Its the absurdity of hypochondriacs that we disregard the everyday dangers and focus on the rare ones. For instance, I know absolutely no one that has had a heart attack, an aneurysm, or died from cancer. I've known multiple people killed in car wrecks. I even knew a guy who died playing football. This is the reality of a 1:100 chance of getting these diseases. That is to say, my risk of any of those is less than 1% (at my age). But in my mind a 1% chance is tantamount to saying it happens all the time. I don't panic when I get in a car about dying in a fiery auto crash. But I'd swear that I'm having a stroke at any one moment.

Its a funny thing. It turns perfectly rational people into blathering idiots in a very specific portion of their life. Its not as if I'm this way at work. My job is troubleshooting. And I find myself ruling things out on a regular basis purely because the symptom doesn't fit. If you hear hoof beats, you think horse, not zebra.

It seems that in my mind there are no zebras. Man, that is deep...